finished with round 2

Today went well! We met with the doctor this morning before my infusion - my white count is at 11,000 which is wonderful. It rebounded on it's own, without the help of any Neulasta ( a shot to stimulate the production of white cells). The Neulasta can cause some pretty severe bone pain so I'm happy to be able to go without it. I won't need it at all if my counts continue to rebound on their own - yay! I have my last round of chemo. on December 12 and then we will start radiation about 2 weeks after that. My doc said that he will repeat the PET scan after radiation - so probably sometime in February. The infusion itself was uneventful. I took a nap for the first hour and a half and then Michael brought me the best chicken noodle soup from the cafeteria. He had to bring some jello for dessert, as nobody gets to have lunch at the hospital without a wonderful jello dessert, right? Tonight I am home & resting...I'm already feeling a little tired & a bit nauseous. We are having a birthday party for Zach tomorrow so I'm getting ready for that (no, it's not at our house thank goodness). I'm guessing that by tomorrow night I'll be ready for lots of rest - and maybe some Tylenol. :)

Today's Lesson; The human spirit is stronger than economic fear

If you've read Jennifer's last post you know about the surprise that we got yesterday. It's an amazing story of generosity, but I would like for you to reflect on the depth of the giving. We are in the midst of the worst economic times in over half a century not to mention Christmas is right around the corner and we all know the madness of gift buying. My sister-in-law, Kim, is the queen of all fund raising. She sells Gold Canyon candles and had decided that she and her team were going to sell candles and donate the proceeds to Jennifer to help with the medical bills. I want you to understand what this means. Selling candles is her job. This is what she does for a living and she's pretty dang good at it. So she is going to use the time that she uses to run her own business and the money that she makes selling her own products and donate that to her sister. I hope you are as amazed about that as I. I didn't even mention the fact that she has 3 kids and the two boys are ginormous and need lots of food.

Then my dad got in on the fun. We have Cowboys season tickets. When I say we, I mean he and I use them. So he decided that he could donate the Thanksgiving day tickets to sell to add to the donations. If you haven't been to a Thanksgiving day Cowboy game then your life isn't quite complete. Now only has it become as traditional as turkey and a nap, but it's the last Turkey Day game ever in Texas Stadium. This is on top of the fact that my dad is a HUUUUUGE Cowboy fan so you must know the depth of love he has to give that up for his daughter-in-law. He told me that he had sold the Thanksgiving tickets and I got a little upset. I asked him who he sold them to and he couldn't give me an answer. That made me even more mad. I kept asking him who he sold our tickets to and he finally made up some lame answer and I just decided to let it go. He's not very good at keeping secrets.

So Kim now has the raffle tickets to take care of on top of the candles. She went to a local printer to have tickets made. She told them what they were for and the printer told her that she would donate not only the tickets but her cost to have another company perforate the ticket stubs. When she sent the tickets off to perforate, that company also donated their service. After hearing that, the printer decided to give the money that they were going to spend on perforation to the cause itself. Please take a minute to wrap your mind around that. The economic climate of today has put business-to-business services in more stress that you could begin to image. Companies are hoarding cash out of fear right now. That means that they are not outsourcing services like printing. So in that environment this company decided that they would donate money to a family that they don't know. That literally brings me to tears. Ultimately, all purchases are made based on value. We all want to buy products and services that we find great value. In a business-to-business service one of the most important qualities of of value is trust. I promise you that I can trust a company that not only would do this for a family but they did it with no expectation of publicity. MINUTEMAN PRESS is a nationwide franchise that I highly encourage you to visit. If you live in the area of DFW I plead with you to use the location on Debbie Lane in Mansfield for any printing service you have. These are the types of people that you want to do business with. I'm sorry that I don't know the name of the company that donated the perforating, but I'll find out and post it.

So now they had to sell the tickets. There were people calling our family members to ask to buy because they had heard about what was going on. I don't know everybody that helped or donated money but I do know that people we haven't seen in years were donating, buying candles, and buying raffle tickets. These people who are afraid of layoffs, a stock market that is anemic, and are looking at the prospect of having a limited holiday celebration but they found a way to donate money. I don't want to thank too many people by name because I'm afraid I would miss somebody, but to those of you that donated time and money to this effort we are so grateful. I truly feel overwhelmed that we have people in our lives that have that type of love in their hearts.

That's all for now, but think about Jennifer tomorrow as we go back for infusion #2. The first few days after treatment were the toughest last time, but we know that it works. It is actually impossible to find little ole' Lumpy anymore. I can't say that I miss him. Deuces~

Surprise!

I have no idea where to begin when it comes to thanking people for their generosity.  Just when I think I have seen more acts of kindness than I could ever imagine, more seem to appear.  I was completely surprised today when I received proceeds from a raffle & candle sales that totaled more than $7000.  I had absolutely no idea that any of this was being done.  I mean, absolutely  no idea at all.  I knew that my sister was an amazing person and I have seen her go out of her way to help other people before.  She has truly outdone herself in coordinating this on my behalf...  her birthday is Saturday and I'm feeling that whatever I get her just won't measure up after today.  :)

To all of you who worked so hard to put this together... thank you is simply not enough.  You have changed my life & the future financial situation of our family.  You have given a tangible example of kindness & generosity that I will make sure my boys always remember.  I want them to know that the world is full of people who are always willing to help, and I want them to someday become part of that community of people.  You are true blessings to me & my family and I am already inspired to "pay it forward"...

We are starting to receive a few bills and we have set them aside.  We were very aware that this was expensive and we were planning to set up a payment plan with Baylor that would probably still have a balance when we reached retirement!  That burden has been lifted and I am forever grateful. 

 I hope that you are smiling as you read this and know that I am thinking of each of each of you as I write this tonight.  If you know of someone who helped and does not read this blog, please pass along my thanks to them.  Yet again, I have felt God's blessings as we go through this journey - and I have seen His work in each of you.